Hans Op de Beeck: A Selection of Video Works

Exhibition August 11 – October 14, 2012

Hans Op de Beeck is a highly regarded Belgian artist of international repute whose work was last seen in Ireland in Dublin Contemporary 2011. Op de Beeck’s prodigious body of work includes sculpture, installation, video, photography, animated films, drawings, painting and short story writing. His first solo exhibition in Ireland will consist of four video works, including the much acclaimed medium length film ‘Sea of Tranquillity’ and the European premier of ‘Celebration (Buenos Aires)’, 2011.

Thematically, the work concentrates on our problematic relationship with time, space and each other. Op de Beeck shows the viewer non-existent, but identifiable places, moments and characters that appear to have been taken from contemporary everyday life that emphasise the tragicomic absurdity of our postmodern existence. Irrefutably fictional, constructed and staged, these video works are extremely precise and visually astonishing. Hans Op de Beeck’s work poses questions about the difficult relationship between reality and representation, between what we see and what we want to believe. This investigation results in the most extraordinary images that are truly unforgettable.